GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 vs GTX 980
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 195 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 48 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 10.98 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 11.99 | no data |
| Architecture | Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019) | Ampere (2020−2024) |
| GPU code name | GM204 | GA104 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 19 September 2014 (10 years ago) | 1 September 2021 (3 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $549 | $329 |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
Detailed specifications
General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 2048 | 3584 |
| Core clock speed | 1064 MHz | 1320 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1216 MHz | 1777 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 5,200 million | 17,400 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 165 Watt | 170 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 155.6 | 199.0 |
| Floating-point processing power | 4.981 TFLOPS | 12.74 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 64 | 48 |
| TMUs | 128 | 112 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 112 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 28 |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).
| Bus support | PCI Express 3.0 | no data |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Length | 267 mm | 242 mm |
| Height | 4.376" (11.1 cm) | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Recommended system power (PSU) | 500 Watt | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | 2x 6-pin | 1x 12-pin |
| SLI options | + | - |
VRAM capacity and type
Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.
| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 12 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 7.0 GB/s | 1875 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 224 GB/s | 360.0 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
Connectivity and outputs
Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.
| Display Connectors | Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2 | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |
| Multi monitor support | 4 displays | no data |
| VGA аnalog display support | + | no data |
| DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support | + | no data |
| HDMI | + | + |
| HDCP | + | - |
| Maximum VGA resolution | 2048x1536 | no data |
| G-SYNC support | + | - |
| Audio input for HDMI | Internal | no data |
Supported technologies
Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.
| GameStream | + | - |
| GeForce ShadowPlay | + | - |
| GPU Boost | 2.0 | no data |
| GameWorks | + | - |
| H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder | + | - |
| Optimus | + | - |
| BatteryBoost | + | - |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 6.4 | 6.6 |
| OpenGL | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 3.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.1.126 | 1.3 |
| CUDA | + | 8.6 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 19 September 2014 | 1 September 2021 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 12 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 165 Watt | 170 Watt |
GTX 980 has 3% lower power consumption.
RTX 3060 12 GB GA104, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 6 years, a 200% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 250% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104. We've got no test results to judge.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
